Insider

Your all-access pass to FP

Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq: U.S. Personnel and Allies Across Region Could Be Targets

Douglas Silliman says diplomats, business people, and NGO workers in the Middle East are vulnerable to Iranian retaliation after Qassem Suleimani’s killing.

By , a national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy.
Then-U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman
Then-U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman
Then-U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman speaks to the press in Baghdad on Nov. 9, 2016. Hadi Mizban/AFP/Getty Images

Three days into the new year, the world braced itself for a dramatic escalation in tensions in the Middle East after a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad’s international airport killed a top Iranian intelligence and security official, Qassem Suleimani. 

Amy Mackinnon is a national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @ak_mack

Tags: Iran, Iraq

More from Foreign Policy

Residents evacuated from Shebekino and other Russian towns near the border with Ukraine are seen in a temporary shelter in Belgorod, Russia, on June 2.
Residents evacuated from Shebekino and other Russian towns near the border with Ukraine are seen in a temporary shelter in Belgorod, Russia, on June 2.

Russians Are Unraveling Before Our Eyes

A wave of fresh humiliations has the Kremlin struggling to control the narrative.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva shake hands in Beijing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva shake hands in Beijing.

A BRICS Currency Could Shake the Dollar’s Dominance

De-dollarization’s moment might finally be here.

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in an episode of The Diplomat
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in an episode of The Diplomat

Is Netflix’s ‘The Diplomat’ Factual or Farcical?

A former U.S. ambassador, an Iran expert, a Libya expert, and a former U.K. Conservative Party advisor weigh in.

An illustration shows the faces of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted by wavy lines of a fragmented map of Europe and Asia.
An illustration shows the faces of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted by wavy lines of a fragmented map of Europe and Asia.

The Battle for Eurasia

China, Russia, and their autocratic friends are leading another epic clash over the world’s largest landmass.